The Raven and the Snake

The Second Book

"Who might you be?" Mr. Weasley asked.

Ariadne had to count the number of ice creams she was getting. Percy outright refused to let her buy him anything, not seeming to have forgiven on the basis of her friendship with the twins. Harry Potter was here today along with Ron, Hermione, and Ginny who was going to Hogwarts for her first year.

"You want any ice cream, Hagrid?" She asked to be polite.

He no, still having to go finish his shopping. She purchased the ice creams with her last remaining galleons and shook Mr. Weasley's hand. "I'm Ariadne Black, sir. Pleasure to meet you. I'm in the same year as Fred and George."

A bruise was starting to form on Mr. Weasley's eye which actually made his resemblance to the twins more obvious. It made her smile to see the Weasley family all together like this.

As hard as she'd tried, she couldn't figure out what exactly was supposed to happen this year. She knew that Ginny Weasley was important for some reason, but the details were fuzzy at best.

Ginny was small and cute, but perfectly ordinary for her age. She looked at Harry any time she seemed to think no one would notice. She didn't have much with her yet, Mrs. Weasley had hung back in the book store, purchasing the necessary materials and having the Lockheart books signed.

"Did you come to ogle Lockheart as well?" Fred asked, a little rudely.

She wrinkled her nose. Every one of his books had his face plastered across the cover. He was handsome in a very generic way with golden curls, blue eyes, and a million watt smile that showed all of his perfect teeth. Personally, she thought that smile made him look like a chimpanzee. She mentioned this to the twins who howled with laughter, throwing their arms over her.

Ariadne would have preferred to stay with them for as long as possible. Really, she wanted to stay near to Ginny, hoping that the girl's presence would help her remember the book. Unfortunately, Toby was also in Diagon Alley today.

He spotted her with the twins and came over, red-faced and fuming. He had sent her many owls over the summer, but she'd only replied to him twice, ignoring his requests to meet up. She had grown weary of his attentions and didn't know exactly how to break up with him.

Toby dragged her off while she promised over her shoulder to see the twins at school.

"You're supposed to be my girlfriend, aren't you?" Toby hissed.

"Yeah, about that..."

"So you chucked him," Birdie was shaking her head disparagingly.

Ariadne shrugged. "He was getting too clingy, Birdie. It was creepy."

Birdie was on the lookout for her next boyfriend and had dragged Ariadne to the Slytherin compartment to chat. Ariadne couldn't figure out what was so great about the compartment where many of her housemates could hear their conversation. Birdie didn't have volume control.

"Enough about me, Birdie!" Ariadne snapped. "Who are you into this year?"

Birdie turned her head to eye a seventh year boy hungrily. Ariadne tilted her head to look at this one. He was alright, better than Birdie's previous conquests at the very least.

The girls went over all the pros and cons of dating a boy in his final year when they still had several more years to go. Birdie mused over who the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher would be, Ariadne didn't say that she already had a pretty good idea who it would be. This year, every student's trunks were a little heavier because of the Lockheart books, a man who was very nice on the eyes according to Birdie.